Page 44 of Creeping Beautiful

And then I walk home, thinking it was a dumb idea to have that talk with Nate. Because love doesn’t have rules and these two passed the point of no return the moment they met last summer.

They will love each other no matter what I say or do to dissuade them.

And, I’m sorry to say, that’s very bad news for Nathan St. James.

When Indie and McKay get back from church she changes her clothes and disappears into the woods and I take McKay aside for a quick chat. “Start her real training tomorrow.”

He gives me a thoughtful look. “You sure?”

“I’m sure. I want her on the job in six months.”

“I dunno.” McKay rubs a hand over his clean-shaven jaw as he considers this. “Six months? Why?”

“Because I’m tired of working alone and that’s the whole reason I bought her.”

Then I turn my back to him and go inside to my office, close the door, and get back to the business at hand.

Core McKay and I grew up together. He’s from Alaska, not Louisiana. His father was an arms dealer for the Company up there and normally that would mean that one day he would take his father’s place. Keep the family business going.

But McKay had two older brothers so his future wasn’t written in stone. My father and I were up in Alaska when I was ten and McKay was nine to coordinate with another Untouchable Company man about a job that was coming up in the Ukraine.

And I took to McKay. He was as tall as me, even though I was older. And we kinda resembled each other with the light hair, and the light eyes, and the build of our lean bodies back then. So my father bought him for me and he came home with us.

Not to Old Home. Back then this mansion was nothing but an old mess and while we did spend summers there before McKay came, afterward we lived in New Orleans in a big old house in the French Quarter. I didn’t go to school, I had private tutors. This was common among the Untouchable families. So when McKay came to live with us I suddenly had a best friend and a classmate, when every day prior to that one, I had been alone.

This is how I know that Nate and Indie will be bonded forever.

She is who she is. Lonely, and sad, and tough, and eager for a friend.

Just like me.

And Nate, though not Company the way McKay was, is just like him.

Desperate for more.

And even though Nathan St. James is only twelve years old, and even though he doesn’t know it yet, living next door to Indie Anna Accorsi will be the highlight of his life.

People don’t walk away from that.

Just ask McKay.

And this bond is something special.

Just ask me.

I love McKay. I would die for McKay.

If McKay walks away, I go with him.

My father bought McKay for me back when he was nine for one reason only. To be me. To take my place. We were never going to be friends.

At least… that was my understanding.

But even the best laid plans have bumps.

Once it was clear that McKay would be staying with me, my father and I sat down for a very serious conversation about what that meant.

“He is yours now, Adam,” my father said. “Forever. In every way. And if there is a thing in this world that threatens to break you apart, you need to eliminate that thing. He is the only person in this whole wide world that you owe loyalty to. His loyalty was bought so yours must be given freely.”